Works by Antonio Obá

Jardim
Accessing a complex spectrum of overtones, the sounds of these bells signal a transmutation of histories into higher states. The sonic resonance of Antonio Obá’s Jardim, or garden, activates a discourse between realms of the living and spirit worlds, much like the universal, mystical practice in which the ringing of bells marks ritual time and space. Rooted in Afrodiasporic influence, syncretic traditions that developed in the Americas are shaped by the fusion of multiple different rituals, practices, and beliefs that contribute to a new worldview. These traditions are embedded within Antonio’s experiences of living and creating in the world. You are welcome to run your hands along the surface of the bells as you walk this processional path.

A Folia: travessia [The Revelry: A Crossing]
In this speculative landscape, Antonio Obá combines fragments of events into an allegorical composition. The image of the central protagonist is from a photograph taken by Douglas Martin of Dorothy Counts (b. 1942), integrating Harry P. Harding High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, at 15 years old, set out on a walk toward school amid a crowd that assailed her with jeers and spitting. In a reversal of the events of the day, Obá replaced the antagonistic crowd with one evoking a march to demand civil rights, a street carnival in New Orleans, and even an allusion–made evident in the red pennant adorned with a dove–to the Festa do Divino, a syncretic rite held in the interior of various Brazilian towns that celebrates the biblical episode of the descent of the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles of Christ.

There is something compelling in this allusion. The artist depicts each participant as symbolically imbued with a festive, revelrous exaltation, led by the figure of Dorothy, who emancipates herself through education. The inclusion of chanana flowers (Turnera subulata)–a species that grows generously in tropical America and possesses medicinal properties–at the bottom of the composition is a reference to this freedom.

Co-presented by the Toronto Biennial of Art and the Art Museum at the University of Toronto and made possible with the generous support of Mendes Wood DM.